History Main / TheFaceless

The Faceless exist to increase [[RuleOfDrama drama]] or [[RuleOfCool impress]] people. Contrast this with the FacelessMasses, which is done for [[LazyArtist the artist's convenience]], while the SceneryCensor hides ''other'' body parts, to please MoralGuardians. Can overlap with KneeHighPerspective if the perspective of a younger character or animal.

The Faceless exist to increase [[RuleOfDrama drama]] or [[RuleOfCool impress]] people. Contrast this with the FacelessMasses, which is done for [[LazyArtist the artist's convenience]], while the SceneryCensor hides ''other'' body parts, to please MoralGuardians.

* ''LetsPlay/{{Dream}}:'' While George, Sapnap, and Bad had done facecams revealing their true face, Dream's real appearance remained unknown for a long time even after he came to fame. This has since been subverted on October 2nd, 2022, after he uploads his own face reveal video.

** In the first 2 sequels, the flashback sequences avoid showing off Emily and Dasiy's faces in full, showing them from either a (blurry) distance, or a side glimpse.
** Somewhat played with regarding Molly. In the original trilogy, she is clearly seen (as a baby in the first 2 films, then a tween in the third film), but in the prologue of the fourth film (taking place before the third film), when she and her mom are selling Bo Peep, neither are seen in full.

** Played with in the first film, where Andy's mom is typically seen from a KneeHighPerspective as a pair of legs, or from a distance where she can't be easily made out. This is averted in the following films, in which adults are clearly seen along with the kids and toys. However, in the fourth film prologue, she is again only seen in glimpses.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'':
** An in-universe example actually happens to Mike Wazowski, who for some reason, ''always'' has his entire face covered up in whatever media he's appeared in, such as a commercial, a magazine, and even the DVD! (The hole in the middle of the DVD was actually placed in a way so that it too covered Mike's face).

* ''{{VisualNovel/Tsukihime}}'': In the original visual novel, Shiki's face is never shown except as a child. [[spoiler:This is [[ExploitedTrope exploited]] in the side-story ''Alliance of Illusionary Eyes'', which follows someone pretending to be Shiki, since although he looks different he matches how Shiki is described in ''Tsukihime''.]] Averted by everything afterwards, such as ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'' and ''Anime/CarnivalPhantasm'', where his face is readily shown.

* While LetsPlay/{{Technoblade}} had technically revealed his face in his older videos, he had never done an official face reveal, and his viewers rarely ever got a good look at his face. Because of this, his fanbase kept the joke alive that no one knew what he looked like. [[spoiler:His official face reveal came posthumously from photos taken by his close friends whom he'd met up with.]]

* The musician and voice-over artist known only as Creator/CorpseHusband, who rose to prominence through group play-throughs of Videogame/AmongUs, due to his dark sense of humor and his BadassBaritone speaking voice. Corpse's real appearance is unknown. He has only shown rare photos of his hands with accessories and a strand of his hair; even among Corpse's friends, only a few of his trusted friends (Sykkuno, Boyinaband, Anthony Padilla) are confirmed to have seen Corpse's face.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby'', [[spoiler:Tim and Theodore Templeton's faces as grown-ups are deliberately kept out-of-frame in the epilogue.]]

* The Art/SistineChapel's altar painting only depicts {{God}}'s lower torso and feet. While it's standard practice to avoid showing the full form of God [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm for the viewer's sanity]], this is an odd choice since several full-body paintings of God, face and all, lie on the ceiling above the altar.

* ''[[ExaggeratedTrope Every single artwork]]'' in ''Pottermore'' involves this trope. All of the identifiable characters in the art (even minor characters) are depicted with either their faces away from the camera, their faces obscured by scenery, or their faces shown ''highly'' in the distance. There are the rare occasions in which people are shown with their faces unobscured, such as students whom are participating in the duelling club and members of the Wizengamot, but those are only extras of whom have no clear identities.

* Over at Blog/{{Froghand}}, the chances of Froge revealing his identity is close to zero, given how he wrote [[https://froghand.neocities.org/accountsec.html an entire article]] on how to prevent doxing.

* Dr. Bob, in-Verse narrator of numerous ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''-based animated videos, always has his face off-camera, shadowed, and/or concealed. In the only case where he faces the viewer, he's wearing a scuba mask that hides all but his chin.

* Most of the cast of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', since it's a ''{{Franchise/Halo}}''-based machinima. In Season Three it's revealed that not only do the troopers of Blood Gulch never take their helmets off even when off-camera, but Church has no idea whether Tucker is black or not (though Tucker's more annoyed Church never learned his first name). The AnimationBump of Seasons 9 and 10 lets us finally see most of the Freelancers bareheaded during the flashback sequences, though with a few exceptions. Agent Washington almost never takes his helmet off, even eating with it on, though in one shot we get to see the back of his head (he has short blonde hair, by the way). The Director doesn't wear a helmet, but the camera avoids his face until [[spoiler: the Season 10 finale, and the reveal that he and Carolina have FamilyEyeResemblance]]. The only time Maine has his helmet fully off, Sigma is obscuring his face, and we later get a shot when he's putting his helmet on, revealing himself to be BaldOfEvil and have the Meta's symbol tattooed on the back of his head.

* The musician and voice-over artist known only as Creator/CorpseHusband, who rose to prominence through group playthroughs of Videogame/AmongUs, due to his dark sense of humor and his BadassBaritone speaking voice. Corpse's real appearance is unknown. He has only shown rare photos of his hands with accessories and a strand of his hair, Even among Corpse's friends, only a few of his trusted friends (Sykkuno, Boyinaband, Anthony Padilla) are confirmed to have seen Corpse's face.
* ''LetsPlay/{{Dream}}:'' While George, Sapnap, and Bad have done facecams revealing their true face, Dream's real appearance is unknown. According to him, he has dirty blond hair and freckles, but unless he decides to reveal himself we won't know for sure.

** A more straight example would be a [[{{Notzilla}} Godzilla stand-in]] named Ted, who is apparently so tall that he can only be shown from the legs down and clucks like a chicken (he was originally going to sound exactly like Godzilla himself, but the idea was refused due to copyright reasons). A blooper at the end of the film actually revealed that his upper body actually belonged to [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory Rex]], here portrayed as a normal-sized UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex instead of a plastic toy.